Cleaning continues after chemical spill from CTI fire in Houston Ship Channel

DEER PARK, Texas (KTRK) – While cleaning work continues at ITC's Deer Park facility, the Texas Environmental Quality Commission has confirmed the presence of hazardous chemicals in the waters near Buffalo Bayou and the Houston Ship Channel.

At a press conference on Saturday, officials said three tanks had caught fire on Friday. The first problem occurred during the morning when a dyke retaining runoff contaminated by fire-fighting efforts broke down.

ITC officials said the 10-foot breach in the wall had been closed, but that they were working to strengthen it and determine the cause.

After the breach in the wall, officials decided to suspend their efforts to unload chemicals into secure tanks until they could solve the problem.

"Our main goal today is to maintain security, the second objective is to remedy the ditches and, finally, to resume the withdrawal of the product," said the ITC Incident Commander. Brent Weber.

The Houston Ship Channel will remain closed, and officials said there was no specific timetable for its reopening after the release of chemicals into the waterway.

The Gulf Coast strike team from the US Coast Guard has been called upon to participate in cleanup efforts.

There is also no estimate of the number of days that installation problems will last, but officials promised the community members that they were working to resolve these issues. .

According to a TCEQ press release, during cleanup, the EPA recorded values ​​of 1,000 ppb of benzene on Penninsula Street, near Buffalo Bayou. Short-term exposure to benzene above 1800 ppb for an hour can be a health concern, TCEQ said.

TCEQ added the following in their statement:

TCEQ has analyzed the water quality data of the gap leading to the installation and collected by TCEQ and ITC subcontractor.The agency is currently evaluating 117 components in the setting for a thorough laboratory analysis.Nine components in the tested samples have exceeded their health status -the level of protective concentration, including total xylenes, pyrene, anthracene, benzene, l & rsquo; Ethylbenzene, toluene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene and 2-methylnaphthalene. "

Officials said no threat to local drinking water systems had been detected and no drinking water system was drawing water from the Houston Ship Channel.

In the meantime, the Harris County Emergency Management Office will remain open 24 hours a day until it feels that there is nothing left to do.

A series of city halls is also planned over the next few days.

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